[Setbacks and hidden charges push cost of stealth aircraft to £150m each. This plane is a monstrous farce. Canada still has not cancelled its order for 65 of them = $16 billion! *RON*]Alexi Mostrous & Deborah Haynes, The Times, 17 July 2017

Britain is paying hundreds of millions of pounds in hidden costs for a next-generation warplane that will be unable to function properly because of defence cuts, an investigation by The Times has revealed.

The F-35 Lightning II, the most expensive aircraft of its kind, has been described by Sir Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, as the “most powerful and comprehensive” fast jet in history. Its American manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, has said that the aircraft will cost Britain between £77 million and £100 million each.

However, taxpayers face spending more than £150 million for each of the high-tech fighter-bombers delivered this year, analysis suggests. The extras — for items such as software upgrades, …

Far-right activists have set sail in a boat with plans to prevent the arrival of Europe-bound boats carrying refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, sparking criticism from an anti-racism monitor.

Italy struggles to cope with refugee influx

Defend Europe, the group behind the journey which began Sunday, said on its fundraising page that its members would set sail in a 422-tonne vessel with a 25-member crew after receiving more than $115,000 in donations in recent weeks.

The crew is expected to arrive in Catania, Italy, on Monday to await the arrival of the boat they will use on their mission, organisers said.

The UK-based organisation, HOPE not hate, which has monitored Defend Europe, reported that the boat was setting sail from Dji…

He was known as the Mayor of 95th Street, an angular figure in a cap and blazer who was a fixture of the streets of his Chicago neighborhood. He was an activist who tried to help young people rise above the city’s unrelenting gun violence.

But William Cooper, 58, fell victim to the violence he had worked so hard to stop.

On Monday, Chicago emerged from another bloody weekend of gun violence in which 10 people were killed in 35 gunfire incidents from Friday evening through just before midnight on Sunday, the Chicago Police Department said on Monday. Among them, the department confirmed, was Mr. Cooper, known as Willie.

Outside the Lilydale Outreach Workers for a Better Community in the city’s South Side neighborhood, local television stations broadcast an impromptu prayer vigil and a shrine …

Andy Warhol was among the first artists to uphold a kind of lifestyle as art that is now firmly ingrained in us during the age of Instagram filters and Snapchat stories. Before Warhol, artists of renown like Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock were hallowed names in the art world, but few outside the elites could probably identify their faces in a crowd. Warhol morphed into more than a successful aesthete, becoming an emblem to adorn bags, mugs, and other overpriced museum tchotchkes. Himself a stargazer who fussed over stars ranging from Truman Capote to Marilyn Monroe, Warhol knew the substance of the shining iconicity he was pursuing.

His reach extends to the actual bodies of our common idols. Old Lady Gaga pal Brendan Jay Sullivan recalled a mom…

While four of six Tsilhqot’in communities are evacuated due to raging wildfires surrounding their communities, Christy Clark's outgoing Liberal government has granted permits to Taseko Mines to conduct extensive pre-construction exploration and drilling for the New Prosperity mine proposal in a place precious to the Tsilhqot'in Nation. Never mind that the federal government has twice nixed successive versions of the proposal. …